So, this is an edited and recut version of something I posted on my DA, mainly cleaned up for the sake of it being clean- I'm afraid I have a bit of a potty mouth when I get into the stream of consciousness. I'm posting this mainly because age keeps being a recurring thing in other threads, and we might as well have a dedicated topic for it.

With the aid of a little information picked up from MavrickIndigo (That being how many "Sonic's birthday" issues old Archie had), I'm going to engage in some ultimately pointless speculation and discuss the ages of the Sonic characters. Now, given that it changes up across the various series, I'm going to stick with preboot Archie because that's what I tend to work with when I do my own writing. Post-reboot Archie seems to be keeping the ages deliberately vague and I compliment it for that, SEGA caused most of the problems here with the manual for Sonic Heroes (Which is still somehow the official version despite being eleven years old and not making sense), Sonic X doesn't follow the same rules as the others and does weird things with time, AoSTH is nonsensical and that's the point, SatAM used the same ages as Archie, STC has vague ages and lets you draw your own conclusions, and nobody cares about Underground. And as for Boom... Look, if your "comedy" show is making a Justin Bieber joke in 2015, then you're a good three-to-four years late and I don't have to discuss you. Especially since "Justin Beaver" was a joke that the Internet already made in 2011.

Now, first off, the concept of age is very poorly used in the Sonic series. Aside from a few characters, the main cast all act like they're in their late teens/early twenties. Cream acts like a little girl, Charmy and Marine act like annoying kids, and Amy is a deranged, preteen fangirl. There are a few secondary characters too, like evil!Fiona actually being what a stupid teenage girl would be like, but as we'll discuss later, that presents its own problems...

Meanwhile, our main heroes all act like twenty year olds (This being something that does extend to other material, especially the recent games), when they're supposed to be mid-teens at their eldest. That said, there really is no reason for them not to be young adults rather than teenagers or preteens, because their ages are never used as plot points.

Okay, I say never. There were four times when they did. Four. And one of them was an episode of AoSTH (In which Sonic is revealed to be a legal minor, opening him up to be adopted by Momma Robotnik. Yes, that actually happened and it was one of the better episodes, probably because Momma Robotnik was the closest the show got to an actually threatening villain).

Meanwhile in series that aren't deliberately insane, age was a theme of the SatAM episode Droodhenge, for both Tails and Sally- Tails was revealed to be ten, and his age was the main thing stopping him from being a full Freedom Fighter, while Sally was confirmed to be sixteen, with the secret files on Nicole locked until she turned eighteen.

Aside from that, Archie's used it twice, both times being a girl telling Tails he was too young to date them.

That's it. Those are the only times a character's age has ever mattered. Now, I understand that they don't want the cast to look too old to the kiddies, and to that I say "Well why give them an age at all?"

Let me ask you something: How old is Mickey Mouse? I mean the character within the cartoons, movies, games, etc? You don't know, do you? That's because Mickey doesn't have a defined age. Disney have realised that giving Mickey a defined age could only limit the stories that they tell. So you have material like their take on a Christmas Carol, where Mickey (As Bob Cratchitt) is a married man with kids, or Kingdom Hearts where he's the King of the entire setting, or material like Epic Mickey and that CGI thing that was on their small children's channel where he's younger. Within the cartoons, he could be either.

To that extent, SEGA could easily say "They're teenagers", and they're done. Maybe they're 19. Maybe they're 13. They might not all be the same. And it would absolve most of the issues. It seems like they're going that way- Even when a birthday does happen (Sonic had two in AoSTH, two in the comics, and one in Generations), they never say how old he is after it, but there's no confirmation either way.

That said, it can be a hindrance for character work, so I can see why they don't do that. And being an amateur writer myself, I like to have a solid grasp on the characters, so let's work this out.

So, let's start with the characters' given ages at the beginning of the series, and at the end of the preboot timeline (According to the wiki):

You might notice that Sally and Tails have only gone up one year, when the others have gone up two. From this, we can infer that either they made a mistake, or their birthdays are later in the year than the others. It is worth noting that the last time Tails' age was referenced was issue 155, which came out ten years ago, so how well that still stands is a bit vague.

Of course, we're ignoring the elephant in the room here: If this all added up, I wouldn't be writing a topic about it, would I? So let's go over the information presented within the comic, and work out how old they should actually be, starting with our hero, Sonic.

SonicTaking the original given ages as a baseline, Sonic's first non-origin story appearance is when he is fifteen years old. Now, he has had two birthdays within the Archie canon, so that adds up to him being seventeen, right? So it is right? Except for one major thing: Sonic's year in space.

At the end of issue 125, Sonic stopped an alien superweapon from destroying Mobius. However, as a consequence, he was catapaulted across the universe, and the next five issues were spent on bizarre space adventures before he finally returned to Mobius. However, at the end of that,he realised that, to his friends, an entire year had passed. This means that there was another birthday that Sonic wasn't there for, and would've been spent mourning rather than celebrating, but nonetheless, happened. So that adds up to three birthdays. Like a lot of things, this was Ken Penders' fault, since he stated that Tails was eleven and Sonic was sixteen in issue 155, which was after two of those birthdays, meaning that they should've been twelve and seventeen respectively. I'm guessing that Penders was probably trying to alter things he didn't like again, or simply didn't care enough to read someone else's work and find out about one of those birthdays. In any case, from this, we can infer the following:

Sonic the HedgehogStarting Age: 15Given Age: 17Actual Age: 18.

Huh. Turns out the only canon where Sonic is a legal adult is the only one where he has a family anyway.

So, what does this mean for the other characters?

Sally is a year older than Sonic, but still seventeen at the end of the old universe. In the interest of this not being "Y'all borked it up" rant Number 123", I'm going to assume that her birthday is after Sonic's. Adding the proper scaling from the previous segment, we get this:

The other characters can be looked at the same way. Depending on how much time you think passes between issue 160 (Sonic's most recent birthday issue) and the demise of the Primeverse in issue 247, and where their birthdays are in relation to Sonic's does have an affect there, and leaves it a bit less well-defined than Sonic or Sally.

Antoine DeCooletteStarting Age: 18Given Age: 20Actual Age: 20-21

Bunnie DeCooletteStarting Age: 16Given Age: 18Actual Age: 18-19

Rotor WalrusStarting Age: 16Given Age: 18Actual Age: 18-19

Now we have to discuss Tails. Tails' age changes the most of any character, WHen he was introduced, he was generally assumed to be at least ten, something SatAM and Archie went by. However, AoSTH bumped him down to four in order to make him the little kid who could learn things from Sonic. Besides that, Tails vaguely ten until 2001, when SA2 made him twelve. Then the Sonic Heroes manual came along and said he was eight, and shortly after that, Archie said he was eleven. In the modern productions (SEGA, Archie, and Boom), he acts like a young adult most of the time. Archie-wise, you could say that, since all of his friends are teenagers and he grew up in a war, Tails is very mature for his age, but of course, as we've discussed above, that age in and of itself is ill-defined.

Naturally, however, we can work it out. When Tails first appeared, he was ten. Three years have passed, so Tails is between twelve (If his birthday has not yet passed) or thirteen (If it has). And honestly, this does make sense. He's no longer star-struck by Sonic. He's a mature character, often moreso than some of the others (Sonic, Antoine in his less-brave moment), down-to-Mobius and realistic about a lot of things.

So now we have a list for the core FF.

Sonic: 18Sally: 19Tails: 13Antoine: 21Bunnie: 19Rotor: 19

Now of course, you might be wondering why I didn't include Amy or Nicole. Well, as a computer with a vaguely-defined backstory, Nicole's age is relatively inconsequential, and there's not a lot to work on. However, I'm looking at this mainly in the context of writing these characters in future (Even though, so far, I've had them all five years older than this anyway because violent stuff happens), wherein Nicole uses her SatAM backstory rather than the lacklustre ones Archie has provided, and therefore, she was once an organic, born like any other Mobian. So, for the sake of getting it out there, Nicole is a year younger than Sonic within my writing. So to fit into this bracket, Nicole would be seventeen.

Amy, on the other hand, is problematic. As I said above, she does play the role of a preteen fangirl very well. The problem comes when Archie want us to take her seriously as a protagonist. Now, this is difficult enough as-is, without going into the issues caused by how old she was supposed to be. When she was introduced in Sonic CD, Amy was assumed to be about eight years old. She was made older in SA1, and then the Sonic Heroes manual said she was twelve, and I think I'll let this sum that up:

Yeah, she looks way too old to be twelve. Archie resolved this by making her eleven and then having her age herself up to sixteen to try and make Sonic notice her, so we can assume that there's an increase of five years on magic ring alterations.

Amy RoseStarting Age: 11 (16)Given Age: 11 (17)

Yes, somehow, Amy hasn't aged at all. Her physical age has gone up by one, but somehow, chronologically, she is just as young now as she was at the start of the series. This makes precisely zero sense. But for the sake of fixing that:

Of course, we now know the ages of our main protagonists and their evil (Or not-so-evil in the case of Buns, possibly) counterparts. What about the main antagonist of the series, though. Where does Doctor "Eggman" Robotnik fit into this whole mess?

Well, we can't work him out based on Sonic, and his given age in SEGA lore is unknown. Archie, however, gives us more of a shot. Archie has stated that, at the time of his death, the original Robotnik was forty-six years old, and adding their (erroneous) two years, Eggman would be forty-eight. You might be noticing an issue here, one that only started after 2001. Professor Gerald.

See, Robotnik became a scientist because he was inspired by his grandfather. But if he was in his forties, then Gerald would've been killed four years before he was born, and he would've been raised in a society that hated Gerald. Now, I'm assuming that Robotnik wanted to be a scientist before he also became evil. I don't think anyone aspires to be evil. If that's the case, then he must've at least met his grandfather, and been old enough to understand how "cool" everything that he was doing was. So we can basically add ten years to his age.

Doctor RobotnikGiven Age: 48Actual Age: 58

However, this isn't allowing for the extra year that Archie somehow missed on everyone, so it should be:

Doctor RobotnikStarting Age: 46Given Age: 48Actual Age: 59

Of course, this is what Robotnik's age is chronologically. But Eggman spent a lot of that time as a robot, meaning his physical age would be different. However, since the time he roboticized himself is unknown, it's impossible to determine his physical age.

Now, it is possible that, as Mavrick told me on DA, Bertha and Geraldo just told Julian the truth about his grandfather, and he came to his own conclusions from that, but I personally like the idea that Julian at least met Gerald.

Shadow is physically eighteen and has been alive for about fifty years, according to Archie canon. SEGA canon states that Shadow is over fifty. This means that being in suspended animation doesn't have an affect on how old the series treats you as- Otherwise, Shadow would be considered to be only a few years old, or eighteen if they went by his physical age. And speaking of his age, we all know that Shadow does not age physically... unless he does. In the regular comics, Shadow is the same height as Sonic, who is generally shorter than adult Mobians like Maximillian Acorn. However, in the storyline "Mobius: 25 Years Later", Shadow appears, still the same height as the now-adult Sonic. Ergo, Shadow has gotten taller, and therefore older physically. You might be saying "But Shadow can't age!", but I can explain this. Think about other functionally ageless characters. They still grow up, don't they? They all look about thirty. Rather than "Not aging, ever", they keep growing until they reach their physical prime. So we can assume that, within Archie, Shadow has not yet finished growing. Now, exactly how old he is depends on how he was created.

Of course, since this is all to benefit future writing, there's a character missing (Okay, Emerl is too, but it doesn't matter to him), as well as one last member of the Suppression Squad: Fiona. And she presents a problem.

At first, it looks like an open-and-shut case with regards to issue 155, which was the last time age was used as a plot point. Fiona tells Tails that she prefers Sonic to him because he is closer to her age, which sets her between eleven and sixteen (Or rather, twelve and seventeen, allowing for the missing year). Then later, the encyclopedia comes out and sets her as sixteen (Seventeen with the missing year added). Except we then have one major, major issue.

Auto-Fiona.

Auto-Fiona is a perfect, mechanical copy of Fiona, built by a factory robot, when Fiona was a preteen. The robot is at youngest nine, and at oldest twelve. You might be saying "No problem, it must've been built a while ago". Except no. It was built after the destruction of Auto-Sally, with some of the her parts being recycled in Auto-Fiona's production, specifically to seduce and roboticize or kill ten-year old Tails. Are we seeing the problem here?

In order for Fiona's history with Auto-Fiona to line up, Fiona can't be any more than two years older than Tails! It's also possible for her to be a year younger, but that's unlikely. So when she says she "prefers guys closer to her own age", well... Tails is closer to her age than Sonic is. So, to make it clear:

Fiona FoxStarting Age: 10-12Given Age: 16Actual Age: 13-15

Before anyone suggests that perhaps Robotnik had a perfect, full-body image of her and the factory system used that. Except she was there when it was turned on (And yes, Auto does have the same size and build).

Now, you might be wondering about the whole "How come she's drawn the way she is, then?" Given this series' improbably-built-for-their-age female characters like Rouge, Bunnie, Amy, or early-2000s Sally, it's not really improbable for Fiona to be fifteen (Which translates to fourteen in Archie-we-missed-a-year speak). She'd kinda fit in. And if those is suddenly making FINO's design seem uncomfortable to you, I've got to ask why it wasn't already. I mean, seriously. A vixen clad in figure-hugging black leather, who spends most of her existence posing provocatively or draped over a guy? She was pretty much furry fanservice.

However, if you want to explain the "Maturity" of Penders and Ian's portrayal (Bollers' could easily be fourteen-fifteen in my view), then you're going to need to explain how her age jumped up. Fortunately, the series is no stranger to such things like that, as we discussed with Amy, and since Fiona spent her youth breaking into temples with Nic and stealing the treasure, it's entirely possible she could've stumbled across something that aged her up and messed with her head. Of course, that wouldn't change the fact that she's still fifteen underneath the older body, so I wouldn't recommend using it to justify the issue, but rather as a starting point for character development!

Basically this whole mess is mostly Ken Penders' fault, but that phrase shouldn't be new to anyone here.

So there we have it! An approximation of the ages of the main cast, their evil twins, the main villain, the immortal guy, and a problem character or two. For other characters, simply take the age they were given in their first appearance, and add three years. This doesn't apply to characters that aren't part of the Prime zone, or are not direct reflections of the characters there.

To close out, I'll provide this, the character's actual ages, determined by working out everything presented in the series itself, rather than relying on bios and Word of God, because that can easily change when a different writer comes along:

Confused as to why you wrote the moebian ages since it's obvious that all of them except for Sonic/Scourge are the same age. Sonic is younger than Scourge by a nondescript amount due to his time in space. Also confused why you're trying to age created beings like Auto-Fiona and Nicole who are, at best, just a couple of years old.

Does it matter to you?

Nope.

I can't think of a situation where exact age would actually matter in the context of the post-reboot book.

One thing to note is that when talking about Sonic and Friends you're essentially dealing with an alien race, so the concept of age and levels of maturity may be different than if dealing with humans. Also have to remember that the majority of these characters have been at war since the time they were preschoolers and tradgedy on the scale of losing your home, families, and many of your friends has a way of making one grow up and mature much faster than normal.

- characters 10 and under are actually considered children with Tails just skirting the border. After age 10 children go through a growth spurt that puts them their adult bodies about 5-6 years later. Amy and Silver are in the middle of adolescence and their behavior seems to reflect that at times. The period of " Young Adulthood " is pretty short between 15 and 20 years old. The vast majority of active Freedom Fighters are in this age group. They are physically mature at this age but still need to grow into themselves mentally. Some emotional weakness is to be expected.

After 20 the mobian stays in roughly peak physical condition for the next 10-20 years depending on a great many factors. Mobians who are more connected with the Chaos Force age slower than those who don't. Middle Age begins around 40 years old and by the end of the decade most mobians will resemble " The Elderly ". The average mobian only lives about 60 years. Those who are close to the Chaos Force can live much longer and prolong the effects of aging.

Mobians mature faster than humans because of that animal side of their DNA. They also die a lot younger than their human counterparts for the same reason.

Rough Mental-Timeline is ...

Birth - 4 years old = Infant 5 - 9 years old = Child 10 - 14 years old = Adolescent 15 - 19 years old = Young Adult20 - 39 years old = Adult 40 - 60 years old = Elderly 60+ years old = Either Shadow, the Brotherhood, or the Dark Legion

I don't think there's much of a point in looking at most of the main cast's ages because they're so close together. I based my observations off of the adult and civilian case and how they seem to age.

For example, Rosie seemed to be in her late 30s/early 40s during the beginning stages of the coup. I faintly remember a few times where Rosie was depicted with non-graying hair that made me think that. Ten years later she appears to be an old woman with a granny persona. So I'd put her somewhere in her 50s. Since Chuck may or may not have been interested in dating her I put him at about the same age as Rosie.

King Max and Alicia Acorn (Mobius version) are also interesting cases. This time we were given approximate ages in that they were 18 when they married and ascended the throne, and Elias was born some time later. I'm guessing that Alicia was around 25-28 years old when she and Elias were sent away during the early stages of the Great War and lost. Alicia spent the next 10 years in stasis and about a year as acting queen ... but she did not age well for a 30-something year old. In her last few appearances she appeared as a much older looking woman.

Another thing throwing a wench into exact-aging is roboticization and legionization which can both prolong and halt the aging process. Point? Lien-da was 60 in XYL. Meanwhile Sonic and Sally were in their mid-40s and being depicted with wrinkles. So it seems that with enough cybernetics you can look as young (or old) as you want.

Mobotropolis wrote:Confused as to why you wrote the moebian ages since it's obvious that all of them except for Sonic/Scourge are the same age. Sonic is younger than Scourge by a nondescript amount due to his time in space. Also confused why you're trying to age created beings like Auto-Fiona and Nicole who are, at best, just a couple of years old.

For completion's sake, to be honest. If I was going to include Scourge, I might as well have thrown in the others, while Auto was included because she's a handy reference point for exposing the snarl with Fiona's age. As for Nicole, I specifically stated I'm working off the SatAM backstory in her case, where she did used to be alive.

Mobotropolis wrote:I can't think of a situation where exact age would actually matter in the context of the post-reboot book.

And that's probably for the best, really, but I like having some knowledge of this sort of thing.

Mobotropolis wrote:One thing to note is that when talking about Sonic and Friends you're essentially dealing with an alien race, so the concept of age and levels of maturity may be different than if dealing with humans. Also have to remember that the majority of these characters have been at war since the time they were preschoolers and tradgedy on the scale of losing your home, families, and many of your friends has a way of making one grow up and mature much faster than normal.

I understand that, but when age does get brought up, normally everything is suddenly very human-esque because we want it to fit our human standards.

Mobotropolis wrote:From my casual observation of the series it seems like -

- characters 10 and under are actually considered children with Tails just skirting the border. After age 10 children go through a growth spurt that puts them their adult bodies about 5-6 years later. Amy and Silver are in the middle of adolescence and their behavior seems to reflect that at times. The period of " Young Adulthood " is pretty short between 15 and 20 years old. The vast majority of active Freedom Fighters are in this age group. They are physically mature at this age but still need to grow into themselves mentally. Some emotional weakness is to be expected.

After 20 the mobian stays in roughly peak physical condition for the next 10-20 years depending on a great many factors. Mobians who are more connected with the Chaos Force age slower than those who don't. Middle Age begins around 40 years old and by the end of the decade most mobians will resemble " The Elderly ". The average mobian only lives about 60 years. Those who are close to the Chaos Force can live much longer and prolong the effects of aging.

Mobians mature faster than humans because of that animal side of their DNA. They also die a lot younger than their human counterparts for the same reason.

Rough Mental-Timeline is ...

Birth - 4 years old = Infant 5 - 9 years old = Child 10 - 14 years old = Adolescent 15 - 19 years old = Young Adult20 - 39 years old = Adult 40 - 60 years old = Elderly 60+ years old = Either Shadow, the Brotherhood, or the Dark Legion

I don't think there's much of a point in looking at most of the main cast's ages because they're so close together. I based my observations off of the adult and civilian case and how they seem to age.

Fair enough, but I'd still like to know where everyone fits into such a model. It doesn't change the fact that the FF are all missing a year even though only Sonic should be, or the ever pertinent "How old is Eggman?", or the fact that Fiona's age leaves a lot of questions that have few answers.

If you mean " how could Auto-Fiona be 12 (in appearance) and Fiona be 15? " it is implied that Fiona spent a long time in prison and plausible that Robotnik was only actively developing Auto-Automations in that location for a short while before abandoning it and her.

For completion's sake, to be honest

... but you didn't include Knuckles who was the second most important hero in the book for like 2/3s of its run or any of the members of the Chaotix, Rouge, or a few other characters with semi-confirmed ages like Elias or Geoffery.

It doesn't change the fact that the FF are all missing a year even though only Sonic should be

Could it be possible that all of the other Freedom Fighters also had a birthday but it wasn't shown because nothing of significance happened? That seems to be what happened last year. In fact, I think only Sonic's birthday was ever shown.

Most of the cast is Adolescent years old. There's a few characters who are Child years old, a smattering of Young Adult years old characters, and a number of Old years old and Parent years old characters.

Has an cannon age been stated in the comic? I think in this case age maybe erelevant given the world and that mobains aren't human. It's highly likely their bodies mature into adulthood quicker then humans. Partly due to their size and part animal since most animals either develop faster at points in their life or born more develop. Like infant Chimps start out developing faster then human infants eventfully Chimps plateau out well humans keep developing. Horses are born with the ability to walk where that takes a year for humans.

The game cast have their specific game ages, so there's no ambiguity with them (eg Sonic is 15, Tails is 8 etc). It sounds like Ian wants to release official ages for comic characters, but it's not a priority.

I don't think any pre-SGW ages will be confirmed at this point (if they weren't already).

If you mean " how could Auto-Fiona be 12 (in appearance) and Fiona be 15? " it is implied that Fiona spent a long time in prison and plausible that Robotnik was only actively developing Auto-Automations in that location for a short while before abandoning it and her.

The deal with Auto is her origin.

1: She was built by a factory machine, ergo, not something with an imagination.2: She was a perfect replica of Fiona herself between the ages of nine and twelve, which I highballed for the sake of making Fiona as old as possible.3: Fiona was present when the robot was almost complete.4: The robot was built after the destruction of Auto-Sally in the final issue of the Sally miniseries. It's mentioned that parts from Auto-Sally were recycled in Auto-Fiona's construction, mainly because, at that point, there was no organic Fiona, she was literally supposed to be a downsized Auto-Sally with a tail bolted on, her earlobes removed, and given a new skin.5: Auto-Fiona was built with the specific purpose of attacking Tails. In order for this to be the case, Robotnik would have to be aware of Tails' importance to the FF, and given that the Robotniks are not known for their foresight, he would have to have experienced this first-hand. Tails only started field-duty when he was already ten.

Thus, in order for Auto-Fiona's creation to make sense, the organic Fiona must've been in that same 9-12 bracket as her robot self at the same time that Tails was ten, which clashes with Penders' stating that she was closer to Sonic's age, and the encyclopedia labelling her as sixteen.

Mobotropolis wrote:

For completion's sake, to be honest

... but you didn't include Knuckles who was the second most important hero in the book for like 2/3s of its run or any of the members of the Chaotix, Rouge, or a few other characters with semi-confirmed ages like Elias or Geoffery.

In fairness, when I originally wrote this, it was more for the benefit of the five people on DA that actually read my fics, and Knuckles and the Chaotix didn't really cross my mind because I tend to keep things character-driven and focused on the leads, and since I'm planning to do a full-out reboot when I've finished my current series, I'm saving all my ideas for said characters for the reboot, rather than sloppily forcing them into what I have going now. That said, I also provided a convenient formula to apply to all of the characters, rather than limiting it to these ones.

That said, I probably could've done a better job editing it for the forum, but hey, I can always do supplements. So at some point soon, I'll discuss Knuckles, the Chaotix, Rouge, Elias, and Geoffrey.

Mobotropolis"[quote]It doesn't change the fact that the FF are all missing a year even though only Sonic should be

Could it be possible that all of the other Freedom Fighters also had a birthday but it wasn't shown because nothing of significance happened? That seems to be what happened last year. In fact, I think only Sonic's birthday was ever shown.[/quote]

The point I'm making is that Sonic has had two on-panel birthdays, with a third happening but without him being there because he was in space. So three years have passed in-universe since the beginning of the comic. However, none of the Freedom Fighters have actually aged three years. Bunnie, Antoine, and Rotor have had two, Tails and Sally have had one, and Amy hasn't had any at all. These events weren't shown in-comic, but they must've happened.

[quote="DudestofGuys wrote:Most of the cast is Adolescent years old. There's a few characters who are Child years old, a smattering of Young Adult years old characters, and a number of Old years old and Parent years old characters.

And who could forget the Robot years old cast?

This is probably the best way to handle it, but for those that want a little more depth, it might get frustrating.

ReifuTD wrote:Has an cannon age been stated in the comic? I think in this case age maybe erelevant given the world and that mobains aren't human. It's highly likely their bodies mature into adulthood quicker then humans. Partly due to their size and part animal since most animals either develop faster at points in their life or born more develop. Like infant Chimps start out developing faster then human infants eventfully Chimps plateau out well humans keep developing. Horses are born with the ability to walk where that takes a year for humans.

It wouldn't be an issue if they didn't make it one occasionally and then immediately adopt entirely human sensibilities.

Meliden wrote:The game cast have their specific game ages, so there's no ambiguity with them (eg Sonic is 15, Tails is 8 etc). It sounds like Ian wants to release official ages for comic characters, but it's not a priority.

I don't think any pre-SGW ages will be confirmed at this point (if they weren't already).

I think Tails is still being kept vague so he doesn't mysteriously lose several years of his life upon the reboot. And to be honest, Tails being eight was always the one example that just made no sense at all.

It's been confirmed that all of the game cast now match their game ages, regardless of how many years they gain or lose. Tails is hardly the most extreme example anyway, Charmy's lost at least 10, probably 12 given the pre-reboot time passage.

Thus, in order for Auto-Fiona's creation to make sense, the organic Fiona must've been in that same 9-12 bracket as her robot self at the same time that Tails was ten, which clashes with Penders' stating that she was closer to Sonic's age, and the encyclopedia labelling her as sixteen.

It's a retcon. They happen.

When deciding whether information is canon chances are the most recent information is what should be considered canon. So Tails fell in love with a " 14 " year old robot instead of a " 12 " year old robot. Fiona's justification for rejecting Tails' feelings supports that there was a considerable age gap between them.

The point I'm making is that Sonic has had two on-panel birthdays, with a third happening but without him being there because he was in space

Sonic spending a year in space was retconned to make it ambiguous how much time he spent in space/that he got older.

The retcon and the reason it was retconned was alluded to in Ian's very first arch.

To be fair, I'd rather explain it and work out a story from the whole thing than throw up my hands and say "Penders retconned things again, better just accept it and move on". That's no fun, after all. As I explained in the original post, the series does have means for characters to age artificially, and quite a few artefacts with time-altering powers. Fiona,having spent time as a tomb robber alongside Nic, could've conceivably encountered one. There's the basis for a story. But then how do the effects work? Does she know she's been aged and like because she thinks nobody will take her seriously if they know she's a lot younger? Does she think she's older and isn't aware that she changed? If so, does this effect spread to those around her, like Nic, or do some of the other characters know that she's not menat to be that old?

There we go, instant story.

Mobotropolis wrote:When deciding whether information is canon chances are the most recent information is what should be considered canon. So Tails fell in love with a " 14 " year old robot instead of a " 12 " year old robot. Fiona's justification for rejecting Tails' feelings supports that there was a considerable age gap between them.

In order for that to be the case, the new information has to add up. FOr example, why would Robotnik make his Tails-terminator four years older than him when she's meant to act by seducing him? Surely, he'd pick a victim that would fit the role. OKay, yes, Tails appears to have a thing for older women, but Robotnik wouldn't know that.

Mobotropolis wrote:Sonic spending a year in space was retconned to make it ambiguous how much time he spent in space/that he got older.

The retcon and the reason it was retconned was alluded to in Ian's very first arch.

And yet it was stated that Sonic was chronologically a year older than his biological age from 130 all the way to 247.

Tails appears to have a thing for older women, but Robotnik wouldn't know that.

I think you're overthinking the situation ... and this entire thing in general.

Honestly, I didn't care enough about the storyline to do the math in my head. It's irrelevant. If I were to ballpark-it I would say that Fiona was about 13 years old when she was captured by Robotnik. Robotnik worked at the base for a couple of months before abandoning it and the mobians inside. In total Fiona spent about two years imprisoned before digging out. At 15 she got out and ran with a bad crowd before finding herself in Knothole a year later. Fiona stayed in Knothole after the Xorda attack and eventually met up and started dating Sonic/Scourge at 16.

That's what I believe because it makes sense in my head.

Fiona is young enough that a relationship with Tails would be plausible when they're both adults. Fiona is old enough that a relationship with Sonic/Scourge can happen without it being creepy. Fiona was in prison long enough to know that help wasn't coming and had to save herself.

And yet it was stated that Sonic was chronologically a year older than his biological age from 130 all the way to 247.

Again, the amount of time that Sonic spent up in space went from " a year " to " ambiguous ".

In my head Sonic was gone for between 4-6 months which seemed like 4-6 weeks in his perspective. When it comes to the reference about Sonic's age Rotor was making a joke possibly based on his one filler-space-adventure where he slept through thousands of years of a planet's development.

I just felt the need to reply when you said it never made sense got Tails to be 8.

I feel his age is justified very well and it is part of his character. The fact that he is only 8 adds to his accomplishments. Yet, his young age gives him a sense of innocence and naivety that isn't found as much during the preteen years.

I just feel sometimes people think that his age is ridiculous because he is relatively mature and not childish all the time. But either way it still shows up.

Tails as an 8 year old to me makes sense because of these reasons. In fact that is where I like him best. If he gets older he loses some of that. But again these are just my thoughts, nothing I am trying to state as a fact.

Shadow being physically a teenager isn't because of suspended animation, it's because he was literally created at that physical age. As in, he wasn't created as a baby then grew up, he literally came into being with the body of a teenager. Nor has he grown up since then.

The only aspect of Shadow that ages is the amount of time he's been alive. Otherwise he'll look like a teenager forever.

samuraiman26 wrote:I just felt the need to reply when you said it never made sense got Tails to be 8.

I feel his age is justified very well and it is part of his character. The fact that he is only 8 adds to his accomplishments. Yet, his young age gives him a sense of innocence and naivety that isn't found as much during the preteen years.

I just feel sometimes people think that his age is ridiculous because he is relatively mature and not childish all the time. But either way it still shows up.

Tails as an 8 year old to me makes sense because of these reasons. In fact that is where I like him best. If he gets older he loses some of that. But again these are just my thoughts, nothing I am trying to state as a fact.

When Tails was four in AOSTH, he acted like four year old.

When Tails was ten in pretty much everything else until 2004, he acted like ten year old.

When Tails was eleven in Archie, he acted like an eleven year old.

Now Tails is eight, and he acts like he's in his mid-teens. The innocence just isn't there- It's not like he fails to understand more mature concepts, him being the smartest character in the series means that he generally holds the high ground in pretty much every discussion.

TheFatPanda wrote:Shadow being physically a teenager isn't because of suspended animation, it's because he was literally created at that physical age. As in, he wasn't created as a baby then grew up, he literally came into being with the body of a teenager. Nor has he grown up since then.

The only aspect of Shadow that ages is the amount of time he's been alive. Otherwise he'll look like a teenager forever.